Beatles-EMI dispute settled

Beatles tracks will finally be available via online download services such as iTunes now that a long-running royalty dispute with record label EMI has been settled.

Apple Corps will now be free to negotiate a new royalties deal with EMI that extends to online music downloads.

"We settled last month on mutually acceptable terms," said an EMI spokeswoman. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

No date has been given for when Beatles tracks will be available via online music stores, but earlier this month the EMI chief executive, Eric Nicoli - speaking at a press conference alongside the Apple chief, Steve Jobs - admitted the company was "working on it, we hope it's soon".

The royalty dispute has been rumbling for many years and in December 2005 the band began its latest legal battle against EMI, issuing proceedings in the high court in London and the supreme court in New York to recover the alleged missing royalties money.

Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relatives of John Lennon and George Harrison had alleged that EMI underpaid them by tens of millions of pounds in royalties on sales of Beatles' records between 1994 and 1999.

The resolution of the dispute is viewed as the last hurdle to making the Beatles' tracks available via iTunes, after the band settled another long-running dispute with the digital music store's parent Apple Computer in February.

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